The General Workers` Union will take to the streets and the government would face trouble if it did not amend the clause on essential services in the Employment and Industrial Relations Bill, currently being debated in its committee stage in Parliament, GWU general secretary Tony Zarb told port and transport workers yesterday.
He said this clause in the bill was depriving a range of people, most of whom were members of the section, of the right to strike.
The union, Mr Zarb said, was ready to use all necessary means for the law not to be approved.
He said that according to the proposed clause 64, these workers would not only lose the right to strike for others, they would also be losing the right to strike for themselves.
He recalled that when in the `90s port workers were not wanted at the Freeport, the union had prevented a fuel ship from entering harbour and these workers were accepted.
The union would not be able to do this any more if the law was approved as it was.
If the government insisted on keeping the clause as it was, Maltese workers would, as the Italians had done recently in Rome, take to the streets in Valletta.
Mr Zarb said that to make matters worse clause nine of the bill was giving the prime minister the right to add to the list of essential services whenever he wanted without needing to seek approval from parliament.
So the problem was not just for the port and transport workers, but for all.
"The power the law is giving the prime minister is not found in the legislation of any of our neighbouring countries," Mr Zarb said, adding he hoped it was not being introduced here so that others would then take Malta`s example.
Mr Zarb said there were those who were saying the government was assuming these powers because unions had abused the right to strike which, he said, was not true about the GWU.
He said the union had even called the value added tax general strike on a Monday, rather than on a Friday, which was export day.
The union would not abuse essential services, he said. They did not need the law for them to provide essential services.
The clause, Mr Zarb said, was not acceptable to the union and if the government used its majority in parliament to enact it the GWU would take to the streets.
The union, Mr Zarb said, was giving the government a clear message. It was asking it not to continue insisting on the clause. The union would take all necessary measures to prevent its introduction.
Port and Transport Section secretary Manuel Micallef said it seemed that negotiations on the collective agreement at Air Malta would be concluded in a few days but if they were not, the company would face a summer of industrial action.
At Air Malta, he said, many people were being employed and pressure was being made for part time employees to be made full time.
The union would be happy if workers who were unemployed were given a job but this should not be done to the detriment of those who had given the company their service for years.
He said that for a chief executive the Air Malta board preferred a foreigner - the person who used to manage Swiss Air, which had gone bankrupt - over a capable Maltese.
Several other members of the section were facing problems, including workers at Kalaxlokk, horsemen and horse carriage owners, pilots and mooring men, Tug Malta employees, stevedores, those at the Freeport, at the Malta Air Traffic Service, at Air Supplies, Sea Malta and at Malta International Airport.